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When first learning piano, or any instrument for that matter, you want to learn the names of the notes on the staff. Knowing the note names will allow you to further your skills with music theory, sight reading, analysis, and so on.

Okay, it’s practice time and you are trying to decide what to work on today. You sit down at the piano but feel less than thrilled about running through the same piece you’ve been working on for weeks. So, what can you do to help improve the piece without actually playing the instrument? Graham Fitch […]

14 Great Apps for Music Makers

There are millions of apps out there and it takes a lot of experimenting to find out which ones are right for you. We understand you may not have the time for such an experiment. That’s why we took it upon ourselves to figure out the best apps for music makers. There are certainly more apps out there that we may not have included in this list, but we believed these are 14 great apps for music makers. Check it out below and give us your thoughts in the comment section afterwards.

14 Great Apps for Music Makers

It would be negligent to write about apps without mentioning GarageBand. The full version is free with most Apple computers. It turns an iPhone or iPad into a collection of touch instruments and a recording studio, allowing you to create music on the go.

A great app for the cost, Sylo Synthesizer lets you create music or play sounds using its collection of predesigned sounds. The included sounds can be tweaked to suit your needs, or you can create your own sounds from scratch.

This app is a sequencer, synthesizer, and sampler in one. Its sequencer makes it simple to lay out patterns, while the synthesizer offers maximum flexibility in a small set of parameters. The sampler allows you to record up to six seconds with a mic or copy via iTunes. Nanoloop also allows project sharing.

This app turns your device into a musical instrument. Compose and arrange music in real time with RD4-Grovebox’s virtual analog synthesizer, drum machines, and effects—reverb, distortion, filter, and delay.

Designed for those with no previous experience making music, Propellerhead Figure lets you make music in seconds with drums, bass, and lead synth on an easy-to-use touch interface. Tweak your creation with Rhythm, Range, and Scale Step wheels to get just the right result.

This vocal effects processor has four looper recorders wit dedicated mix controls. Each of the four looper tracks can record up to eight minutes. It includes 50 vocal effects from TC-Helicon. The recording function makes it easy to share resulting music videos via YouTube or SoundCloud.

Hearing protection is critical for musicians. The handy Decibel 10 app measures sound pressure around you, using your device’s built-in mic. It displays maximum, average, and peak values on both digital and analog displays, and lets you plot a history of average values.

With this app you can create beats on your phone or tablet via an evolving library of drum pad presets organized by color. Drum Pads 24’s four loop modes for each pad can be used as a metronome or to automate samples. Use the record function to share your
creations with friends.

This app is the chromatic tuner app choice of many professionals. Cleartune is easy to use and features a big display, pitch pipe tone generator, automatic or manual note selection, custom temperament settings, and adjustable calibration. It can be used on virtually any tunable instrument, even violin.

This metronome app provides accuracy and stability in an innovative interface with Basic, Preset, Setlist, Practice, Gig, and Complete modes. Tempo-Metronome with Setlists features 35 different time signatures, six rhythm patterns for simple meters and three for compound meters and includes advanced setlist management features.

Highly stable and accurate, Metronome: Tempo features 30 different time signatures, plus six rhythm patterns for simple meters and three for compound meters. Pulsing LEDs provide visual feedback. Accents can be customized and beats can be turned off to create more complex rhythms.

This app makes learning to distinguish intervals feel like a game. RelativePitchLite includes a five-lesson training mode, a testing mode to measure progress, plus a custom mode that lets you target problem areas. It will help you improve your ability to improvise, compose, and sing harmony.

This is a fun and easy training tool to improve your ability to distinguish intervals. Perfect Ear includes seven different exercise types and an absolute pitch training tool using piano, guitar, or bass. Tests measure your progress.

Play drums along with your songs with Drum Set. You can choose different drum setup variations. Sounds taken from real drums provide fantastic sound quality. You can record music (beats) for each setup separately and share recordings with your friends.

Free (Android)

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Instead of being dedicated to one instrument, young musicians, or professionals, MakingMusicMag.com is a lifestyle resource for all music makers, regardless of age, instrument, or ability. We focus on providing educational articles teaching people how to play an instrument, but we also favor travel pieces, music related health articles, interesting news stories, and plenty more.
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2 comments

These are some great choices and a few that I’ll have to check out. For singers, I would definitely add SongBook (chordpro viewer with bluetooth foot pedal tie-ins, etc.) and ForScore (PDF viewer with dozens of features specifically for performers). And then we should start making music with all this stuff. 🙂

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